642 Ohio Place / Grace and Effie Bills
Built in 1925, this locally historically designated home was named after the sisters Grace and Effie Bills. The home is a Craftsman Style Bungalow dating from the Sarasota Land Boom of the mid 1920’s. This style was the dominant style for smaller homes of the time.
The structure was considered historically significant due to its embodiment of distinctive visible characteristics of an architectural style or period or a method of construction.
Both sisters moved to Sarasota from Fayetteville, Tennessee in the early 1920’s.
Grace Bills was a stenographer who worked for Cooke Motors for many years and ended her career with Sarasota Bank and Trust. She was a member of the First Christian Church where she was secretary to the church board and a deaconess emeritus. Grace Bills died in a local nursing home in 1975.
Effie Bills was a sales lady with J.C. Penny and Company. She was also a member of the First Christian Church. Effie Bills died at Sarasota Memorial Hospital in 1964.
Referred to as “Misses Grace and Effie Bills, they were regulars in the society column in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune during the 1920s. Below is a story from May 22, 1928:
A delightful gathering of the family took place last evening at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Jo Gill on Sunset Avenue in honor of the birthday of Mrs. Gill’s mother, Mrs. D.W. Bills. A buffet supper was served at 7 o’clock. Those present were Mrs. D.W. Bills, Miss Effie Bills, Miss Grace Bills, W.S. Bills, Mr. and Mrs. R.T. Landess, and Dr. Joe Landess.
The Herald-Tribune also wrote about the many trips that Effie Bills took to Nashville.